Summary: "To tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church... Indeed the church's greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel... Conversely, the only way to....

film genre in which a bulked-up, heavily armed one-man fighting machine broke into prison camp's and rescued hostages, POWs, or kidnapped victims. Names like Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris immediately come to mind. The plots and characters usually had as much depth as a Florida winner snowfall, but when it came to shoot’m up action, those movies had no rivals. An obvious lesson jumped out at any one of those flicks: If you want to set the captives free, you need to go in with guns blazing.

This is the approach Paul took with his letter to the Galatians. Commentators have called Galatians the Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.

Why would a slave, once freed, go back to living in bondage? Let’s explore that together.

NASB Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

What gospel did these folks receive from Paul? Grace gospel!

"To tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church... Indeed the church's greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel... Conversely, the only way to be a good churchman is to be a good gospel-man. The best way to serve the church is to believe, act and to preach the gospel." (Source: Stott, John R.W. The Message of Galatians, "The Bible Speaks Today" Downers Grove, Ill; Inter-Varsity Press, 1968.

Galatians 1:1-2NLT This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. 2 All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.

The word apostle means, ‘one who is sent.’ By Paul addressing Himself as an apostle, it was a known fact that Paul was addressing his validity as a man that personally eye-witnessed Jesus, and that Jesus called him into a apostolic ministry.

"To tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church... Indeed the church's greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel... Conversely, the only way to....

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